UK house prices see biggest fall for two years

UK house prices saw their biggest monthly fall for more than two years in November, according to the latest data from building society Nationwide.

Prices fell 1.4% from October, which was the largest month-on-month fall since June 2020.

Annual house price growth saw a 'sharp slowdown', the building society said, falling to 4.4% from 7.2% in October. The lender added the housing market looked set to 'remain subdued' in the coming months.

The average property price fell to £263,788 last month from £268,282 in October, Nationwide said.

Nationwide's Chief Economist, Robert Gardner, said: 'A lot of this reflects the fallout of the Mini Budget and the big rise that we saw in mortgage rates, because that really did change the affordability calculations for prospective buyers and really made things a lot less affordable.

'If you look at the typical mortgage payment as a share of someone's take-home pay, for the typical first-time buyer that was running at close to long-run averages of 30%. But as a result of the Mini Budget it's moved up to around 45% of take-home pay, which is clearly a massive difference.'

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